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Robert Poandl

A Catholic priest, who worked in several Georgia towns, including Pembroke, is going to prison after being found guilty of sexually abusing a boy in Ohio.

Father Robert “Bob” Poandl was recently sentenced to 7½ years by a federal court judge in Cincinnati, Ohio, for taking a 10-year-old boy from Ohio to West Virginal in 1991 and sexually abusing him.

“This brave victim and his family should be praised for their courage and their determination,” said Judy Jones of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a Chicago-based support group. “Their compassion and bravery has put this child predator in jail and away from innocent children. It was a long ordeal, but they did not give up.”

Poandl was indicted on the federal charges in November 2012 and was found guilty by a trial jury in November 2013.

Poandl worked in the Atlanta archdiocese from 1979-1988 and in the Savannah diocese from 2007-2009 and 2010-2012 at St. Christopher’s in Claxton, St. Jude in Glenville, Holy Cross in Pembroke and Our Lady of Guadalupe in Sandhill.

In June 2009, Poandl was suspended from the Claxton, Pembroke and Sandhill parishes reportedly due to allegations of child sex abuse. He returned to the same three parishes in September 2010 before being suspended again in February 2012 reportedly for a second allegation.

Most recently, Poandl belonged to a Fairfield, Ohio-based Catholic religious order called the Glenmary Missioners and had church assignments in eight states. Poandl was reportedly transferred roughly 30 times in 44 years.